Pico's Cycling - Tales of the Road is an online cycling magazine. It is intended for writers and riders who want to share their on the road cycling stories and pictures. Submissions that follow our guideline are gratefully appreciated. See the appropriate page in the site menu. Will publish the best of the best each month. Follow us on Facebook or Twitter @PicosCycling.

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Friday, 31 January 2014

Homebuilt Bike Trailer

This is not a story of how to go about building a family
bicycle-touring trailer. It’s more a story of sheer determination to do so in
spite of not have the where with all to buy proper equipment.

This trailer was built from two
out of date front wheel fork assemblies, some two by threes, a sheet of the
cheapest plywood I could find, a slow moving vehicle sign, a chunk off an old
car tire, two hinges, a hasp and a can of yellow paint. The parts were cut with
a handsaw. The only power tool used was an old Black & Decker electric
drill my father-in-law picked up at a flea market for next to nothing.

The design was a box with a
frame. A roll bar was incorporated along with assemblies to support the forks
holding the wheels. The hitch assembly
included a joint using a chunk of old steel-belted radial so that it could flex
in three dimensions. Crude and heavy, but it did work. The hitch assembly
bolted to the towing bicycle’s frame low to the ground.

The good points were that the
hitch while heavy worked like a thing of beauty. It was rugged. It was crazy
visible. If necessary it could also be disassembled. The cargo carrying
capacity was also impressive. It could have probably carried a five hundred
pound load.

The bad were that it was way too
heavy and I doubt if it offered anything resembling safety for the passenger.
That roll bar was little more than a heavy decoration, but the thought was
there.

It served us for some short
family rides and one tour, which will be detailed in another story in this,
same issue. After that it was used to carry cargo, which it did very well.
During its life it underwent a few modifications. We reduced the width from
four feet wide to three and a half. There were handles cut in the box portion
to make it easier to handle. It was also cut out behind the slow moving vehicle
sign in an attempt to save some weight.

In 1998, six years after building
it part of it was destroyed during the infamous ice storm that struck the area.
The wheel assemblies and hitch were under the eaves of the apartment we were
renting and when that eight inch thick slab of ice came off the roof they were
crushed. The box served as the family toy box for the kids for almost another
decade.

I’m not proud of the design. I do
think it was a testament to our determination to enjoy cycling as a family. Our
next two trailers were purchased and served in our tours admirably. We did get
our money’s worth out of that first one though.